Woodcock meets Woodhawk

October 6th, 2017

Calgary’s Woodhawk cast a spell on Doc Willoughby’s Pub

Saturday, September 23 saw Calgary’s Woodhawk strike back and bring their brand of classic rock inspired wizardry to Doc Willoughby’s pub. I was able to sit down with Mike and Turner beforehand to talk about touring and the new album. Kevin was dreaming of amazing drum grooves in a galaxy far, far away.

Curtis: How many times have you played Kelowna?

Turner: This is our third time. We were here in April last year and this is our second time here on the Beyond the Sun tour.

C: If there was one song that you really felt would explain the feeling of your band on the new album what would it be?

T: I personally would choose Beyond the Sun, I think it has the most variety with the writing. It goes from soft to heavy and it covers a lot of ground, which I feel is a good sum of the way the whole record kind of was. It’s not all just heavy balls to the wall but it’s kind of all over. It shows a lot of elements that aren’t in every single song kind of a sum up.

C: So far on the tour, what city do you feel has the best crowd or the most energy?

Mike: Probably Vancouver. It was the first time in a long time that we’ve seen a mosh pit.

T: It was a big crowd for that one. We’ve played Vancouver a lot of times. We’ve played everything from the dives on East Hastings, which I guess this one was too [laughs], to the Commodore with Airbourne. This was kind of the first medium kind of show that people came out to see us which was really nice. It was one of my favourite shows so far. I find Vancouver so weird. You think to go to a big city like that that it’s going to be great. There are so many bands and people though, that it’s hard to get people to come out. When there is that many people in a city to get your name noticed is a lot, it’s hard. This genre, this kind of Doom, Stoner Rock genre, is just thriving in Vancouver. Bands like us are kind of a dime a dozen there. We are lucky that we’ve been able to stand out for some of our shows and kind of push above that, but there is a lot of bands who are very big in that scene. It’s very easy to get washed in with them.

C: How did you enjoy playing the Commodore?

T: Yeah, it was nuts! We were in the middle of recording the record. Some of our friends from a local band, who were asked to open by Live Nation, they couldn’t do it. They knew we were in town so they called us and asked if we wanted to do it. They asked if we could open for Airbourne the next night and we were like, yeah for sure! It was still the biggest crowd we have played to date. It was sold out, which was packed! It was a little nerve racking going from venues like this to the Commodore. Here you walk on and set up your stuff. There they have like stage managers who walk us through and we had our own sound guy, we had the full treatment. After that show, I labelled every one of my guitars because everyone was like, where does the stuff go and we’re like, I have no idea. We learned a lot from that show. It was surreal, to say the least!

C: So, the album was recorded in Vancouver?

T: Yeah, with Jessie Gander at Rain city, legend of legends.

C: Is there a particular message that you guys are looking to send to fans or is it more just having a good time writing good music?

T: Have fun, relax, and appreciate things. We’re really happy on stage, we’re always smiling and joking around. Even during the record, the theme of it is you work so hard to escape the reality in which you live in, that you don’t realize how good you actually have it. We didn’t say that for months after the album came out until people could perceive it on their own.

C: Yeah give them a chance to absorb it on your own and figure out what it means to them.

T: Pick out the story on however it feels best to you but that was kind of our intent writing it.

The crowd was mesmerized throughout the evening both Vancouver’s Bort and Calgary’s Woodhawk delivered masterful performances. It truly was a journey beyond the sun. Let’s hope there is a Return of the Woodhawk tour to follow. They are a must see and are very down to earth individuals. Go check out their music as you will not be disappointed! Check out the full interview on the Phoenix Website.